Socio-technical system transition as genetic recombination

摘要

Over the last years, within the general domain of sectoral systems of innovation, the sociotechnical approach has emerged as a novel perspective to innovation studies. According to this approach, (sociotechnical) systems move from state/regime to state/regime under the pressure and dynamics of endogenous and exogenous forces forming trajectories/transitions of different shapes. Geels and Kemp (2007), Geels and Schot (2007), and Smith et al. (2005) have provided typologies of change processes and transition pathways. In these, single system adaptations, or transitions, are considered to be the products of interactions of different nature and timing between the elements in a multi-level (niche-regime-landscape) perspective. In other words, new systems/regimes are considered to be the result of mutations of the elements of an existing regime. In this paper, we extend the existing literature by presenting a novel type of transition to a new system/regime, which is the product of a crossover-like operation on the elements of two 'parent' socio-technical systems (genetic/sexual recombination). This new type of transition is demonstrated in the paper by presenting the case of the development of the functional foods (FF) socio-technical system from its 'parent' nutrition and pharmaceutical regimes. We analyse the gradual emergence of functional foods and pinpoint the elements inherited by the parent systems in crossover configurations (e.g. the distribution system of pharmaceuticals embedded in the nutrition system) and selected by the use system (selection environment). We develop a qualitative model of the functional food system development and analyze its dynamics. The analysis provides support for our thesis that the emergence of the new system as a product of 'genetic recombination', driven from the pressures that the parent systems face from the landscape, constitutes a new type of sociotechnical transition.